I came across this article today talking about a 17-year old who foiled an attempted car-jacking. He was with his mother in a fast-food drive through at 1:30 in the morning. Much like the people on Flight 93, this guy had had enough and wasn’t going to stand by and watch someone point a gun at his mother. He reached over from the passenger-side of the vehicle, grabbed the gun and after a struggle, shot the assailant several times.

Here is the kicker–the sheriff said that it would have been better if he had just let the assailant take the car. Does anyone really believe that continued passivity makes us safer, or do it engender more abuse? Do school-yard bullies stop picking on you or stealing your lunch money just because you keep giving it to him? The best approach to a bully is to stand up to them and prove that you won’t back down.

For total transparency, the gun did go off during the struggle but the bullet did not hit anyone. Someone could have been hurt. And the assailant has learned 1 of 2 possible things. First he could have learned that you should just shoot first. Secondly, he could learn that showing deadly intent could prove deadly. Either way, he’s going to be spending some time in jail.

For the final kicker, imagine, just imagine, that a passenger in the car had a weapon with them. There would not have even been a struggle, no gun would have gone off during a struggle. The passenger could have brandished the weapon to scare off the assailant, or they could have simply shot the assailant. He was threatening deadly violence, so it would have been a legal kill. Either way the assailant would have left them alone and thought twice before trying it again. Indeed, if he had been shot by someone familiar with their weapon, he may not have had any thoughts after a few minutes. A 9mm Hydrashock has an average incapacitance time of 4.17 seconds. That is good enough for me.

To sum it all up in one cliche’, “Resistance is _not_ futile.”